Cookies & Internet Advertising

Visiting AbeBooks’ websites with your browser settings adjusted to accept cookies or using AbeBooks mobile apps, or other software tells us that you want to use AbeBooks’ products and services and that you consent to our use of cookies and other technologies to provide them to you as described in this notice and in our Privacy Notice. See below for information on how to modify the settings in your device to notify you when you receive a new cookie and disable cookies altogether.

Cookies and How We Use Them

Cookies are unique identifiers that we transfer to your device to enable our systems to recognise your device and to provide features such as storage of items in your shopping basket between visits or interest-based advertisements on other Websites. Any reference to “sites” of AbeBooks includes our AbeBooks websites, mobile apps or other software. For information on the controllers of your personal information, see Controller of Personal Information in our Privacy Notice.

We also use cookies for additional purposes, including:

Identifying you when you sign-in to our site. This allows us to provide you with features such as creating a want or saving items for later among other customised features and services we provide.

Conducting research and diagnostics to improve AbeBooks’ content, products and services.

Preventing fraudulent activities.

Improving security.

Cookies allow you to take advantage of some of AbeBooks’ essential features. For instance, if you block or otherwise reject our cookies, you will not be able to proceed to Checkout, or use any AbeBooks products and services that require you to Sign in.

Cookies and Brower Settings

The Help feature on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie and how to disable cookies altogether. Additionally, you can disable or delete similar data used by browser add-ons, such as Flash cookies, by changing the add-on's settings or visiting the website of its manufacturer.

Internet Advertising

On AbeBooks-owned and operated sites and unaffiliated sites, AbeBooks displays interest-based advertising using information you make available to us when you interact with our sites, content, or services. Interest-based ads, also sometimes referred to as personalised or targeted ads, are displayed to you based on information from activities such as purchasing on our sites, use of apps or software, or visiting sites that contain AbeBooks content or ads. Click here for more information about the types of information that we gather.
Like other online ad networks, we use cookies, web beacons (also known as action tags or single-pixel gifs), and other technologies (collectively, "cookies"). Cookies enable us to learn about what ads you see, what ads you click, and other actions you take on our sites and other sites. This allows us to provide you with more useful and relevant ads.

We do not associate your interaction with unaffiliated sites with your identity in providing you with interest-based ads.

We do not provide any personal information to advertisers or to third party sites that display our interest-based ads. However, advertisers and other third-parties (including the ad networks, ad-serving companies, and other service providers they may use) may assume that users who interact with or click on a personalised ad or content are part of the group that the ad or content is directed towards (for example, users in a particular geographical area or users who bought or browsed for gardening books). Also, some third-parties may provide us information about you (such as demographic information or sites where you have been shown ads) from offline and online sources that we may use to provide you more relevant and useful advertising.

Third party advertisers or advertising companies working on their behalf sometimes use technology to serve the advertisements that appear on our sites directly to your browser. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. They may also use cookies to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and to personalise advertising content. We do not have access to or control over cookies or other features that advertisers and third party sites may use, and the information practices of these advertisers and third party websites are not covered by our Privacy Notice or this Cookies & Internet Advertising page. Please contact them directly for more information about their privacy practices.

As described above, you may modify the settings in most browsers to notify you when you receive a new cookie and disable cookies altogether.